Birkbeck anthropologist to study the making of biodiversity value
Dr Sian Sullivan, Senior Lecturer in Environment & Development, will be researching the financialisation of biodiversity...
Dr Sian Sullivan, Senior Lecturer in Environment & Development at Birkbeck, will be researching the financialisation of biodiversity as part of a research grant awarded by the Leverhulme Trust, to be based at a new Leverhulme Centre for the Study of Value at the University of Manchester.
Academics at the centre will investigate the ways that value for money is calculated for both government and private sector programmes in the developing world, and will study how value is assigned by policy makers to aspects of the human and non-human environment. Their findings will assist the devising of more equitable and ecological accounting systems by aid agencies and government departments.
Dr Sullivan’s work on the financialisation of biodiversity will explore how new calculative methods for ‘valuing nature’ are being created to bring biodiversity into conventional accounting practices. Through studying emerging biodiversity offsets and payments for ecosystem services technologies in the UK and Namibia, she hopes to clarify some of the broader social and ecological implications of incorporating nature into monetary valuation practices.
"Biodiversity Crisis"
Dr Sullivan said: “When nature is viewed in monetary terms, is it the nature that is valued, or the money? This is the key question that the Birkbeck part of this project responds to.
"We are in the midst of an anthropogenic biodiversity crisis, caused by land-use changes associated with economic development. The current ‘Green Economy’ response to environmental crisis is to find ways of amplifying the financial value of biodiversity such that the ‘real value’ of biodiversity is accounted for, and conservation strategies become attractive to investors and businesses.
“It is unclear, however, that valuing nature in monetary terms will generate robust conservation outcomes or enhance its broader social, ecological or intrinsic values.
“This study seeks to contribute to debate in this area through researching perceptions, practices and policies surrounding new conservation technologies based on calculating monetary values for nature”
Professor Sarah Bracking, from The University of Manchester, who will direct the new centre, said: “Value is a complex area, and our projects are critically related to how we can build a better quality future, touching on a range of issues such as global warming, poverty, biodiversity, nature, land and water.
“We aim to radically critique the way we understand value in the social and human sciences by researching contemporary examples of market and value creating processes at the frontiers of our formal economy”.
New activities
The centre will run five separate projects on:
- Private sector development: how is value for money calculated?
- Climate change futures: how is the value of carbon created?
- Allowable death: how is human life valued, or not?
- Conservation banking, offset markets and payments for ecosystem services
- Land and water markets in Africa
Further information:
The Leverhulme Trust was established in 1925 under the Will of the first Viscount Leverhulme. It is one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK, distributing funds of some £60 million every year. For further information about the schemes that the Leverhulme Trust fund visit their website at www.leverhulme.ac.uk / www.twitter.com/LeverhulmeTrust